After the U.S International Trade Commission has placed a ban on importing and selling older iPhone models and tablets of Apple, the Obama administration has decided to intervene by putting a halt to the ban. Apparently, the ITC has ruled out that the sale of iPad 3G, iPad 2 3G, iPhone 3GS, and iPhone 4 being sold by AT& T should be banned for reasons of patent infringement claimed by Apple’s arch rival Samsung.
Michael Froman, Trade Representative of the U.S, expressed in a letter that the decision to halt the ban is based on a review that revolves around several policy considerations which further explains whether companies can freely sue their competitors for patent infringing of products that are inspired by technology. The latter is then defined as something that is deemed standard and clearly important for the industry.
Furthermore, patents are supposed to be fairly and reasonably licensed to competitors. Back in January, both the Department of Justice and the Patent and Trademark Office of the U.S have come up with a policy statement saying that courts should have a specific set of criteria whenever they try to evaluate a company’s claim of patent infringement in order to ensure that the covered technology is fully available to the industry.
Froman further added that an evaluation is necessary to determine whether the ruling that mandates a ban on older phone models would be against the interest of the general public. He also wanted to understand if banning their sales and importation will directly affect competition in the U.S market.
While Froman has clearly stated his disapproval of the ITC decision, he had added that Samsung would still be allowed to demand for damages in the future. He assures the patent owner that he can still exercise his rights as guided by the U.S courts.
As of the moment, Samsung hasn’t been able to give a comment. Kristin Huguet, Apple spokeswoman, feels delighted with the decision of the Obama administration and added that Samsung made a mistake in abusing the patent system.
In the meantime, there is a separate ITC decision that studies the case on Samsung products infringing on Apple’s patents. After it was delayed on Friday, the ITC is said to release the decision on Aug. 9.
